Phantom Tollbooth Quotes - Page 2

• The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.

  Norton Juster

  Effort, Can Do

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.164, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye.

  Norton Juster

  Eye, Noticing

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.112, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• You can't improve sound by having only silence. The problem is to use each at the proper time.

  Norton Juster

  Silence, Sound, Use

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.163, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going.

  Norton Juster

  Expectations

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.25, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• That's the way most everyone gets here. It's really quite simple: every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not. It's such an easy trip to make that I've been here hundreds of times.

  Norton Juster

  Simple, Way, You Like It

  Norton Juster (1961). “The phantom tollbooth”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I received a grant from The Ford Foundation to write a book for kids about urban perception, or how people experience cities, but I kept putting off writing it. Instead I started to write what became The Phantom Tollbooth

  Norton Juster

  Book, Writing, Kids

  6 Copy quote

• When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd even bothered.

  Norton Juster

  Home, School, Somewhere Else

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.9, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let me try once more," Milo said in an effort to explain. "In other words--" "You mean you have other words?" cried the bird happily. "Well, by all means, use them. You're certainly not doing very well with the ones you have now.

  Norton Juster

  Mean, Bird, Effort

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.169, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't know of any wrong road to Dictionopolis, so if this road goes to Dictionopolis at all it must be the right road, and if it doesn't it must be the right road to somewhere else, because there are no wrong roads to anywhere. Do you think it will rain?

  Norton Juster

  Rain, Thinking, Somewhere Else

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.25, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It has been a long trip," said Milo, climbing onto the couch where the princesses sat; "but we would have been here much sooner if I hadn't made so many mistakes. I'm afraid it's all my fault.

  Norton Juster

  Inspirational, Mistake, Princess

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.189, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why not? That's a good reason for almost anything - a bit used perhaps, but still quite serviceable.

  Norton Juster

  Why Not, Reason, Used

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.42, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.

  Norton Juster

  Philosophy, Unexpected, Happens

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.20, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Many of the things which can never be, often are.

  Norton Juster

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.163, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.

  Norton Juster

  Life, Real, Eye

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.101, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's bad enough wasting time without killing it.

  Norton Juster

  Wasting Time, Killing, Enough

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.34, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?

  Norton Juster

  Octopus, Heard, Covered

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.115, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always hated those fantasy books where, at the end, all the kids had to go home. At the end of a Narnia book, you always got shown the door. Same with The Wizard Of Oz and The Phantom Tollbooth. You get kicked out of your magic land. It's like, "By the way, here's your next surprise: You get to go home!" And the kids are all like, "Yay, we get to go home!" I never bought that. Did anybody buy that?

  Lev Grossman

  Book, Kids, Home

  Interview with Jason Heller, www.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I loved fantasy, but I particularly loved the stories in which somebody got out of where they were and into somewhere better - as in the Chronicles Of Narnia, The Wizard Of Oz, The Phantom Tollbooth, the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.

  Lev Grossman

  Dragons, Cartoon, Wizards

  Interview with Jason Heller, www.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source